Cheddar Salami Scones

So, full confession, I am a food-aholic. I love food. And my biggest downfall? Food tv

So what happens when I binge watch The Great British Baking Show? I start craving baked goods.

Guys, I am not a baker. I am a home cook for sure; throwing ingredients into a pan in a decidedly haphazard fashion works for me. No need to accurately measure when you are judging by taste. So the thought of slowing down, measuring (not to mention weighing?), and submitting to the science of baking, isn’t usually appealing. But watching @Paul.Hollywood for three hours talk about all the under proved and over worked bakes started to make me crave some straight up bakery ish.

So I decided to start small and make scones.

And man did I get lucky.

Now on the show, they always use cool hipster like ingredients like thyme mixed with appricots, and stilton with pepper. So when coming up with my own scone recipe, I utilized my love of salty flavors.

I ended up with Sharp Cheddar and Salami scones.

Eff my life!

The basic recipe I found on Pinterest, courtesy of @Handletheheat, which created the base for my scone recipe. I will link her original recipe here.

From there, I put a few spins on it.

Here is how I did it:

 

Fire up the oven. Mine runs cold, so I was at 410 F, but a regular person’s oven will probably fine at 400 F.

Now find a big ass bowl, and throw all your dry ingredients in there i.e. the flour, sugar salt baking powder and baking soda. Now I know what you are going to say. Wait! There is sugar in there! It is fine I promise. The sugar gives the dough this slight sweetness that pairs with the cheddar and salami really nicely.

 

Now take the butter, which you have chilled down and cut into cubes, and throw it in the bowl. Most people will tell you to cut in the butter with something fancy like a pastry cutter. I don’t have that, and on the show, they definitely just use their hands. I started with a fork but just ended up rubbing the butter into the flour with my hands under the mixture resembles fine crumbs. As long as the butter is really cold, and your hands aren’t as hot as an Arizona summer, you will be fine.

 

In another smaller bowl whisk up the Buttermilk and eggs. Here is the trick if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, which I rarely do. Take a wet measuring cup and fill with the desired amount of milk. Then add a teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice and allow to stand for about ten minutes. This will curdle the milk slightly and make it thick and tangy, just like buttermilk.

 

At this point, I added my cheddar and salami to the dry bowl. I figured getting them coated in a bit of flour would help the add in to stay even throughout the scone, and it did seem to work.

Now you need to mix in the wet ingredients. Here is what I will say; make a well, and pour the wet stuff in the middle of it. And mix, just barely. This should be pretty sticky and just barely combined. You want scones, not hockey pucks.

 

Scrape your mixture out of the bowl, and land it on a floured surface. Divide it into two mounds and press with your hands until each dough disk is about 6 inches across. Then divide each into 8. This makes them pretty small, but it was nice with the strong flavors. I would try just dividing in 4 to get bigger scones, but I haven’t tested that yet.

 

Now you can place each scone wedge onto a parchment lined baking sheet, (I used foil cause I was out of parchment), and bake them for about 12 to 15 minutes. Be sure to leave a bit of space, otherwise they end up touching, and no one wants unwanted touching. A few inches between each should be fine.

And then you end up with these beauties.

 

I tried them on the hubby-to-be’s office coworkers. Needless to say they didn’t last through the coffee break.

 

 

Ingredients

3 Cups of All Purpose Flour

1/3 Cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, cubed and chilled in the freezer

1 cup buttermilk (I used the milk with vinegar trick)

2 eggs

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup sliced salami, cut into quarters